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REPORT 



OF THB 



SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 



ON THE 



PUBLIC SCHOOL HOUSES 



OF PROVIDENCE. 



PROVIDENCE: 
PRINTED BY KNOWLES AND VOSE. 

18 46. 






REPORT. 



To the School Committee : 

Gentlemen : — I take this opportunity to present a Report on 
the Public School Houses of this city, in order that it may appear in 
connexion with the vakiable Report of the " Building Committee,' 
which is soon to be published. The importance of a Report on this 
subject cannot be easily over-estimated. Could the Building Com- 
mittee have found, at the beginning of their labors, a fnll Report, 
illustrating, with the aid of engravings, the general plans and ar- 
rangements of three or four good School Houses, it would have saved 
them the expenditure of months of time, and hundreds of dollars. 
With such a report in their hands, they would, doubtless, have pre- 
pared better School Houses at less expense. 

But without such aid, the Committee caused to be erected a set 
of School Houses superior, at the time they were completed, to those 
of any city in the country. "No city in the United States, it is be- 
lieved, can show so many Public School Houses, uniformly well 
built, with most of the latest improvements, as Providence."* 

The Public Schools in this City being divided into four grades, 
viz : Primary, Intermediate, Grammar and High School, every 
School House is constructed, and the furniture in each room ar- 
ranged with special reference to the wants of some one of these 
grades of Schools. 

* See " School House Architecture," by Henry Barnard, Esq., page 42 : Hartford ; 
Case, Tiffany & Co., 1844. 



PKIMARY SCHOOL HOUSES. 



These buildings are located in different parts of the City, and are 
designed for the accommodation of children from four to six or sev- 
en years of age, or until they are prepared to enter the Intermediate 
Schools. 




No. 1. — View of a Primary School House. 

These School Houses stand back from thirty to sixty feet from the 
line of the street, and near the centre of lots varying from eighty to 
one hundred feet in breadth, and from one hundred to one hun- 
dred and twenty feet in length. Each lot is enclosed by a neat and 
substantial fence six feet high, and is divided into two yards — one 
for boys and the other for girls— rwith suitable out-buildings, shade 
trees and shrubbery. 

These houses are each forty feet long, by thirty-three feet wide, 
with twelve feet posts, built of wood, in a plain substantial manner, 
and, with the fences, are painted white ; presenting a neat and attrac- 
tive exterior. 

The entrance is into a lobby [A] and thence into an open area, 
where stands the stove [a]. A portion of the lobby is appropriated 
to bins for charcoal, [c] and anthracite, [d] which is the fuel used 
in all the schools ; the remainder [B] is occupied by a sink, and as 



depositories for brooms, brushes, &c. Each room is arched, thereby 
securing an average height of thirteen feet, with an opening in the 
centre of the arch, two feet in diameter, for ventilation. The ven- 
tilator is controlled by a cord passing over a pulley and descending 
into the room near the teacher's desk [b]. In each end of the attic 
is a circular window, which, turning on an axis, can be opened and 
closed by cords, in the same manner as the ventilator. 




No. 2. — Interior of a Primary School-Houae. 

The teacher's platform [C] is five feet wide, twenty feet long, and 
seven inches high, with a black-board ten feet long and three feet 
wide on the wall in the rear. 

2 



The floor is ot' incli and a half plank, tongued and grooved, and, 
for the purpose of securing warmth and firmness, and avoiding noise, 
is laid on cement. 

The windows, eleven in number, of twenty-four lights, of seven by 
nine glass, are hung with weiglits, and furnished with inside blinds. 
The sides of the room and entries, are ceiled all round with wood, 
as high as the window sills, Avhich are four feet from the floor. The 
rest of the walls are plastered and covered with white hard finish. 
Each room is provided with sixty seats [s] and desks, [t] placed in 
six ranges ; each range containing ten seats and desks, of three dif- 
ferent sizes, and each seat and desk accommodating two scholars, or 
one hundred and twenty in all. 

The centre aisle is three feet and a half wide, and each of the 
others about two feet. 

The desks are over three feet long, by sixteen inches wide, with a 
shelf beneath for books. The upper surface of the desk, [a] except 
about two inches at the top, [b] slopes one inch and a half in a foot. 



r 




No. 3. — View of top of a desk, and aectional view of primary seats and desks. 

The front of the desk constituting the back of the next seat, slopes 
one inch in a foot. The seat also inclines a very little from the 
edge. The seats are of four difierent sizes, varying from seven to 
ten inches wide, and from nine to fourteen inches in height, the 
lowest being nearest the teacher's platform. 



INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL HOUSES. 

All the buildings of this class are two stories high, affording ac- 
commodations for two schools, a Primary, and an Intermediate. 
These Houses are generally in pleasant situations, on large lots, va- 
rying in size from one hundred feet wide by one hundred and 
twenty feet long, to one hundred and fifty by two hundred feet. 



8 



Rows of shade trees, consisting of elms, lindens, and maples, are 
planted along the side- walks and the fences enclosing the yards ; 
and evergreens, the mountain ash, and other ornamental trees are 
placed within the enclosures. 

These houses are forty-four feet long, by thirty-three feet wide. 
Some of them are built of wood, the remainder of brick, and all in 
a tasteful and substantial style. 

The rooms are large, and easily ventilated ; being twelve feet in 
the clear, with large openings in the ceiling of the upper room, and on 
the sides in the lower room, leading into flues in the walls, which 
conduct the foul air into the attic, from which it escapes at circular 
windows in the gables of the buildings. These flues, and windows, 
can be opened and closed by cords passing over pulleys, and de- 
scending into the rooms below, where the teachers can control them 
with ease. 





No. 5. — Sections of Ventilators. 

Tn this cut, the cord («,) passing over the pulley (j,) raising (h,) 
hung on hinges at (g,) opens wholly or partially the ventilator (/,) 
a circular aperture three feet in diameter. The plan of ventilating 
the lower rooms, is shown on the other part of the diagram, in which 
(a) represents a cord running over a pulley and attached to (c,) a 
board three feet long by one foot wide, opening the space between 
(6,) the top of the lower room and (d,) the floor of the upper, lead- 
ing into the flue (e,) ascending to the attic. 

The windows, nine in number in each school room, of twelve 
lights, of ten by sixteen glass, are hung with weights, so as to be 
easily opened at top and bottom, and furnished with Venetian blinds, 
inside, to regulate the amount of light admitted. 

The floors are of hard pine boards, an inch and a half thick, and 



about six inches wide, tongiied and grooved, and laid on mortar, as 
a protection against fire, for the prevention of noise, and to secure 
warmth and firmness. All the rooms, entries, and stairways, are 
ceiled up with matched boards, about four feet, as high as the 
window sills. The remaining portions of the walls are plastered, 
and coated with white hard finish. 




No. 6.— Interior of an Inlrrmediate Scliool House. 

The walls of some of these buildings are solid stone work, faced 
with brick ; others are built with double brick walls, as above 
shown ; connected by ties of iron or brick. 



10 

As the rooms in the lower stories, of this class of buildings, are 
appropriated to Primary Schools, and are furnished in the same 
manner as those already described, the preceding cut is intended to 
serve the double purpose of exhibiting on the first floor, only the 
improvements on the former plan ; and on the second, the whole 
view of a room for an Intermediate School. 

The steps [a,a,a] are broad granite blocks, with scrapers on each 
end. The side doors, [A,A] one for boys, the other for girls, lead 
into entries, eight feet by ten, from which the pupils of the Primary 
Schools pass through the doors [B,B] into the main rooms, which 
differ from those above described, in having a space, [0,0] two feet 
wide, on the back part of the rooms, for reading and other class ex- 
ercises, and the recitation room [D,] another valuable improvement, 
as it avoids the confusion arising from having two recitations in one 
room at the same time. 

The flight of stairs, in each entry, commencing at the points, 
[R,R] and ascending in the direction of [1,2,3], lands on the open 
space [P] in the upper entry, from which the pupils pass through 
the doors [C,C] into the school room. 

Coal bins and convenient closets, for brooms, brushes, &,c., are 
built under the stairs, in the lower entries ; and similar closets, for 
the same purposes, are provided in the upper entries. 

The large area, [H,H] thirty feet long, by seven wide, is the same 
in both the rooms, and is occupied by the principal teacher, in each 
school, for such class exercises as may be more conveniently man- 
aged there, than in the other place, [0,0] left for tlic same purpose. 
The position of the stove [?i] is such as not to render it uncomfort- 
ably warm on the front seats, and at the same time, not to interfere 
with the passage of classes through the door [G] into the recitation 
room, [D] which is fourteen feet by ten, and, like all the school 
rooms, furnished with black boards. The lower room is lighted by 
a window over the front door, and by the side lights ; and the up- 
per one by a double, or mullion window of sixteen lights of ten by 
sixteen glass. 

The side aisles [rti^rii] are two feet and a half wide, the others, 
[P,P &c.] are only eighteen inches wide, except the middle one. [C.] 
which is three and a half feet. The passage, across the centre of 



11 

the room, is about a foot and a half wide, and is very convenient for 
teachers, in passing to the different parts of the room, and also for 
scholars, in going to, and from their recitations. 

The seats and desks, in the front part of this room, are made and 
arranged on the same plan as those in the Primary School Rooms 
above described, differing from them only in being one size larger. 
The lower end, or foot of each perpendicular support, or end-piece, 
is strongly fastened into a groove in a " shoe" or piece of plank, 
which being screwed to the floor, secures the desks in a durable 
manner, and in a firm position. 

The others are constructed upon a different plan, designed espec- 
ially for the accommodation of pupils, while writing. These desks 
and seats are of three different sizes. 




No. 7. — Section ot a Writing Desk and Seat. 



The top of the desk [a] is of pine, one inch and a half thick, 
fifteen inches wide, and three feet and a half long. These desks 
are twenty-seven inches high on the front, and twenty-four on the 
side next to the seats. A space about three inches wide, on the front 
edge of the top, is planed down to a level, and an inkstand is let in- 
to the centre of this, even with the surface, and covered with a small 
lid. The ends of these desks are an inch and a half thick, and, fast- 
ened by a strong tenon, to the shoe, [c,] which is screwed to the floor. 
The front of the desk and the shelf, [b] for books, &c., are inch 
boards ; the whole desk made in the strongest manner, is painted a 
pleasant green, and varnished. In the next smaller size, the same 



12 

proportion is observed ; but all the dimensions are one inch less, and 
in the third, or smallest size, the dimensions are all one inch less 
than in the second. For each desk there are two chairs, resting on 
cast iron supporters, [d] an inch and a quarter in diameter, with a 
wide flange at each end, the upper one screwed to the under side 
of the seat, [ej is a little smaller than the lower, which is fastened 
to the floor by five strong screws, rendering the chair almost immov- 
able. The largest size seats [e] in these rooms are fourteen inches 
in diameter, and fifteen inches high, with backs, twenty-eight inches 
from [§•] to the top, slanting an inch and a quarter to a foot. These 
backs are made with three slats, fastened, by strong tenons, into a 
top-piece, like some styles of common chairs, and screwed to the 
seat, while the middle one extends down into a socket on the foot 
of the iron standard. The seats, like the desks, are diminished 
one inch for the middle size, and two for the smallest, preserving 
the proportions in the diflerent sizes ; which adapts them to the 
sizes of the desks. 

GRAMMAR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

There are six buildings of this class, constructed on the same 
plan, and of the same size. They are seventy feet long, by forty 
wide, with a front projection, twenty-eight feet long, by fourteen feet 
wide. They are located on very large lots, varying from one hun- 
dred and fifty to two hundred feet long ; from a hundred and twenty 
to a hundred and fifty feet wide. All of them, except one, are on 
corner lots, and all have large open spaces around them. These, 
and all the other Public School Houses in the city, are protected 
with Q,uimby's lightning rods, and each is furnished with a bell, 
which can be heard in the remotest parts of its district. 

In the cut, on the next page, the engraver has represented a. few 
trees, a little larger than any at present around these buildings, be- 
cause he could not crowd all the trees and shrubbery into the pic- 
ture without obscuring the lower part of the House. 



14 

Below is a ground plan, on a reduced scale, of a Grammar School 
House, including a general view of the cellar, yards, fences, gates, 
sidewalks, &c. 



















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No. 9. — Ground plan, &c., of a Grammar School House. 

The yards, around each of -the Grammar School Houses, contain 
from 18,000 to 20,000 square feet, or between a third and half an 
acre. These grounds are enclosed, and divided into three separate 
yards, by substantial close board fences, [f,f-,ff] six feet high, neat- 
ly made, and painted white. The boy's play ground, [B,] and that 
of the girl's, [G,] are large, but the front yard, [E,] is small, and not 
being occupied by pupils, is planted with trees and shrubbery. 
The graveled side walks, [s,s,s,] running on two sides of all the 
Grammar School lots, and on three, of some of them, are shaded by 
rows of elms, maples and lindens, set near the curbstones. The 



16 

gates [A,C,D] and the graveled walks [d,d,d] lead to the front, and 
the two side doors of the School House ; and [/] is a large gate for 
carting in coal, &c. The out-buildings [i,i] are arranged with a large 
number of separate apartments on both sides, all well ventilated, 
each furnished with a door, and the whole surrounded with ever- 
greens. 

In the plan of the projection [H,j the stairway [r,] leads to 
the cellar, which is seven feet in the clear, and extends under the 
whole of the main building. These cellars are well lighted, hav- 
ing eight windows, [W,W,] with ten lights of seven by nine glass. 
The windows, being hung with hinges on the upper side, and fasten- 
ed with hooks and staples at the lower edge, may be opened by raising 
them into a horizontal position, where they are fastened with hooks 
as when closed. With this arrangement, it is easy to keep the cel- 
lars well ventilated at all seasons. The openings for the admission 
of coal into the bins [0,0,] one for anthracite, and the ether for char- 
coal, are furnished with sheet-iron shutters, fastening on the iiside. 
Every School House has, in the cellar, an abundant supply of good 
water, obtained from a fountain, or from a well, which is generally 
outside of the building, the water being brought in by a pump [P.] 
A supply of good water for a School House, should not be consid- 
ered merely as a convenience, but as absolutely necessary. 

The horizontal section of a furnace [F] shows merely the ground 
plan. The cold air passes through [a,] to the air-chamber, where it is 
warmed by the fires in [j3,p,] two cast iron cylinders, fourteen inches 
in diameter. The evaporator [e,] holds about fifteen gallons of water, 
which is kept in a state of rapid evaporation, thus supplying the air- 
chamber with an abundance of moisture. 

In the plan and construction of the various parts of these furnaces, 
special pains have been taken to remove all danger of fire — an im- 
portant consideration which should never be overlooked. The fur- 
nace is covered with stone, thickly coated with mortar, and the un- 
der side of the floor above is lathed and plastered, not only above 
the furnace, but at least ten feet from it in every direction. 

A full description of the construction, and operation of, the fur- 
naces used in the Public School Houses, will be given under an- 
other diagram. The cellar walls and the stone piers, [c,c,c,c,c,] are 



16 

well pointed, and the whole inside, including the wood-work, over 
head, is neatly white-washed, giving this apartment a neat and pleas- 
ant appearance. 

The walls of all these buildings are of stone, about two feet thick, 
faced with common brick, and painted a tasteful color. 



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No. 10. — Plan of the first floor of a Grammar School House. 



There are three entrances' to these Houses, the front, [A,] and 
the two side doors, [B] for boys, and [G] for girls, leading into 
the entries, [F, C, C] The front is a large double door, with a 
beautiful frontice of fine hammered Q,uincy granite. At all the out- 
side doors are two or three hewn granite steps, furnished with four 
or six scrapers at each door. 

Pupils belonging to the schools in the lower story, pass from the 
side entries into the middle one, and ascending two steps at [a,] 
enter their respective rooms, [T, S,] which are rather larger than 



17 

those in the Primary and Intermediate School Houses, previously 
described, being thirty-six feet, by thirty-two, inside, and eleven feet 
high in the clear. 

In each of the entries [C, C,] there is a provision [t, t, t, t,] for set- 
ting up umbrellas. It resembles a ladder placed in a horizontal po- 
sition, and is fastened to the ceiling on one side and supported on 
the other by substantial posts of oak or other strong wood turned in 
a tasteful style and set into the floor. 

The seats and desks in the rooms [T, and S,] are of the same di- 
mensions, and arranged in the same manner as those in the Primary 
and the Intermediate school rooms before described. The small iron 
posts, [c, c, c, c,] about two and a half inches in diameter, sup- 
porting the floor above, are placed against the ends of the seats, so 
close as not to obstruct the passages at all. Besides the platforms 
[P, P,] twenty feet by six — the tables, three feet by four, for the 
teachers, and the closets [/, I,] for brushes, &c., there are black 
boards, painted upon the walls, extending from the doors [D, D,] to 
the windows, fourteen feet long by four feet wide, with the lines 
of a stave painted on one end to aid in giving instruction in vocal 
music. 

The plan of ventilating these rooms on the first floor, is repre- 
sented by cut No. 5, page 8. Every room is provided with two 
ventilators, each three feet long, by about twelve inches wide, 
opening into flues of the same dimensions, leading into the at- 
tic, from which the impure air escapes at circular windows in the 
gables. These flues should have extended down to the bottom 
of the rooms, with openings on a level with the floors, so that, when 
the rooms are warmed with air from the furnaces, above the temper- 
ature of the human breath, they might be ventilated by removing 
the foul air from the lower parts, and thus causing fresh, warm air 
to be slowly settling down upon the scholars — a very pleasant and 
healthful mode of ventilation. 

These rooms are well warmed by heated air, admitted through 
registers [r, r,] eighteen inches in diameter, from the furnace below ; 
from which [p, p,] tin pipes, fourteen inches in diameter, convey 
the air to the Grammar School rooms in the second story. 



18 

These rooms are large, with arched ceilings ; measuring twelve 
feet to the foot of the arch, and seventeen to its crown. They are 
each provided with two ventilators, three feet and a half in diameter, 
placed in the crown of the arch, about twenty feet apart. 




No, IJ . — Plan of a Grammar Scliool Room. 



The entrances to the Grammar School rooms are by two short 
flights of stairs on a side — from the lower entries to [s, s,] spaces 
about three feet square, and thence to [A, A,] spaces three by five 
feet extending from the top of the stairs to the doors opening into 
the school room. 

The Master's table [c,] as well as tables [d, d,] for the Assistants, 
are movable. The large area (B, B,) being fourteen inches above 
the floor of the room, is eight feet wide by sixty-four long, with 
large closets {u, u,) at the ends, fitted up with shelves, &c., for the 
use of the Teachers. 

The school room is warmed by heated air admitted at the regis- 
ers, (r, r,) and the recitation rooms (R, R,) in the same manner by 



1^ 

the small registers (r, r,) all of which are connected with the fur- 
nace in the cellar by large tin pipes or conductors. 

The black boards, four feet wide, painted upon the hard finished 
walls, are indicated by the lines (6, b, b, &c.) in the recitation rooms 
and along the walls behind the master's table, extending on each 
side to the windows beyond (e, e,) making in each Grammar School 
about three hundred square feet of black board. 

The long benches (e, e,) are used for seating temporarily new pu- 
pils on their entering school, until the master can assign them regular 
seats ; also for seating visiters at the quarterly examinations. The 
space (P, P,) a broad step eighteen feet long and two feet wide, is 
used for some class exercises on the black boards. The passage 
(^, t,) about eighteen inches wide, running the whole length of the 
room, affords great facility in the movements of pupils to and from 
the recitations and other class exercises. The master's classes gen- 
erally recite in the space (o, o,) on the back side of the room, four 
feet wide and sixty-four feet long, where seats are placed for scholars 
to sit during recitation, when it is necessary ; and the same accom- 
modations are provided in the recitation rooms. 

The windows (W, W, &c.,) which are hung with weights, and 
furnished with inside blinds, in the manner before described, con- 
tain twelve lights each, of ten by sixteen glass of the strongest kind, 
the Saranac or Redford glass, 

Th^ quantity of air furnished for each scholar in the public school 
rooms is a matter of no small importance. The rooms for the Pri- 
mary and the Intermediate Schools — the former designed to accom- 
modate one hundred and twenty, and the latter, only ninety-six pu- 
pils — contain between fifteen and sixteen thousand cubic feet of at- 
mopheric air. The rooms for the Grammar Schools, intended to 
accommodate two hundred pupils, contain over thirty-five thousand 
cubic feet, after a suitable deduction for the furniture is made. 

This estimate allows every child, when the rooms are not crowd- 
ed, about one hundred and fifty cubic feet of air, for every hour and 
a half, on the supposition that no change takes place, except at the 
times of recess, and at the close of each session. But the rate at 
which Wcirm air is constantly coming into the rooms from the fur- 



20 

naces, increases the allowance for every child, to about three hun- 
dred cubic feet for every hour and a half. 




No. 12. — Transverse section of a Grammar School House. 



This cut is here given, in order to show an end vieiv, the projec- 
tion, belfry, rooms, seats, desks and cellar. An imperfect section 
of the warming apparatus is presented, giving an outline of the plan 
of its construction. The smoke-pipe, connected with (a,) the 
heater, coiled twice around in' the air chamber, passes oflf in the di- 
rection of (6, b,) to the chimney. The short tin pipes, (c, c,) con- 
duct the warm air into the lower rooms, and the long ones (e, e,) 
convey it to the rooms in the second story. On each side of the 
projection over the door {d.)is a window lighting the outside entry, 
and also the middle entry by another window over the inside door. 
The end views of seats and desks do not represent the different 
sizes very accurately, but sufficiently so to give a correct idea of the 
general plan. 



5! 



S 




22 



THB HIGH SCHOOL HOUSE. 



This building occupies an elevated and beautiful situation at the 
head of President street, near the central part of the city. It is a 
specimen of plain, but tasteful architecture, on which the eye re- 
poses with pleasure. The lot, somewhat irregular in its form, is 
equivalent to one, a hundred feet by a hundred and fifteen, and lies 
on a gentle hill side, rendering it easy to construct a basement al- 
most entirely above ground, except on the back side. The exten- 
sive grounds in front and on feither side, all planted with trees, and 
separated from the High School only by the width of the streets, 
add much to the beauty and pleasantness of its situation. The 
yards around it are enclosed by a handsome baluster fence, rest- 
ing in front on heavy blocks of rough granite. The steps are of 
hewn granite, twelve feet long, making a very convenient entrance. 

The High School being designed for both boys and girls, an en- 
tirely separate entrance is provided for each department. The front 
door, at which the girls enter, has a very beautiful frontispiece, with 
double columns (thus providing for large side lights) and a heavy 
ornamented cap, all cut from Q,uincy granite in the best style. 

The door in the circular projection, fronting on another street, has 
also a fine frontispiece, cut from Q,uincy granite. 

The size of this building is fifty feet by seventy-six, with a pro- 
jection of seven feet. The walls of the basement are of stone, 
three feet thick, and faced with rough hewn granite, laid in courses 
twenty inches wide. Each stone has a " chiseled draft, fine cut," 
an inch wide around the face, and all the joints as close and true as 
if the whole were fine hammered. The remaining portions of the 
walls, diminishing in thickness as they rise, are faced with the best 
quality of Danvers pressed brick, givirjg the building a beautiful 
appearance. The roof is covered with tin, every joint soldered and 
the whole surface kept well painted. 

The rooms in the basement story, which is twelve feet high 
ill the clear, are separated from each other by solid brick walls. 



•23 



The pupils in the girls' department, entering the house at [A,] pass 
into the large lobby [C,] twelve feet by twenty-eight, from which they 
can go to all parts of the building appropriated to their use. 




No. 14. — Plan of the basement of High School. 

The furnace room [H.] has a brick floor, and is kept in as good 
order as the other parts of the house. The coal bins [n, n,] and 
the furnace [F,] are so constructed that with an ordinary degree of 
care, the room may be kept clean as any of the school rooms. The ar- 
rangements {m,7n, ) for setting up umbrellas have been described. The 
pump, [p,] accessible to all in the girls' department, connected with 
a nice sink, lined with lead, affords an abundant supply of excellent 
water. The rooms, [E, G, I,] each not far from sixteen by twenty- 
four feet, are appropriated as the Superintendent's Office, and for such 
meetings of the School Committee and of its sub-committees as 
may be appointed there. 

The large lecture room on the opposite side of the lobby, is fur- 
nished with settees, which will accommodate about two hundred 
and fifty pupils. On the platform [P,] raised seven inches from the 
floor, a long table or counter [d,] made convenient for experimental 
lectures in Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, &c., having pneumatic 
cisterns for holding gasses. At [F, &c.,] are suitable provisions for the 
fires used in the preparations of chemical experiments. The pump 



24 

[p,] with a sink Hike the other, is used exclusively by the pupils in 
the boys' department. 

In all lectures and other exercises in this room, the girls, entering 
at [a,] occupy the seats on the right of [D,] the middle aisle. The 
boys, entering by descending the short flight of stairs [b,] are seated 
on the opposite side of the room. This may seem like descending 
to useless particulars ; but it is done to show that there are no grounds 
for the objections sometimes made against having a school for boys 
and for girls in the same building, where the departments are kept en- 
tirely separate, except in exercises in vocal music and occasional 
lectures. The boys enter the House at the end door [B,] which is 
six feet above the basement floor, and by a short flight of stairs they 
reach the first story at [e.] 




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No. 15. — Plan of the first story of the High School. 

The three rooms [C, D, F,] are appropriated to the department 
for girls. They are easy of access to the pupils, who, ascend- 
ing the broad flight of stairs terminating at [B,] can pass readily in- 
to their respective rooms. 

The course of instruction in the school, occupying three years, 
the room [D,] is appropriated to the studies for the first, [E,J to those 
of the second, and [F,] to the course for the third year. In each room 
there are three sizes of seats and desks, and their arrangement in 



^5 

ail is uniform. The largest are on the back side of the room. The 
largest desks are four feet eight inches long, and twenty-two inches 
wide on the top ; the middle size is two inches smaller, and the other 
is reduced in the same proportions. The largest seats are as high 
as common chairs, about seventeen inches, and the remaining sizes 
are reduced to correspond with the desks. The passages around 
the sides of the rooms vary from two to four feet wide, and those 
between the rows of desks, from eighteen to twenty-four inches. 

On the raised platforms [P, P, P, P,] are the teachers tables, 
[d.d,d,d,] covered with dark woollen cloth, and furnished with four 
drawers each. The registers [/,/,/,/,] admit the warm air from 
the furnace, and the pipes [p, p, p,] conduct it into the rooms in 
the upper story. The passage [b,] leads into the back yard which is 
ornamented with a variety of shrubbery. 

The door leading from the room [F,] is used only for teachers and 
visiters, except when the two departments assemble in the Hall. 

In the room [C,] the boys pursue the studies prescribed for the 
first year, the other rooms in this department are in the next story. 

Pupils ascending from the area [e,] by two circular stairways, 
land on the broad space [a, c,] from which, by a short flight of 
stairs they reach [A,] in the following cut, the floor of the upper 
story, which is sixteen feet in the clear. 





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No. 16. — Plan of the gecond story of the High School House. 




•26 

The room [B,] is appropriated to the Middle Class, and [C,] to the 
Senior Class. The arrangement of the seats and 
desks are the same as in the other rooms, except 
they are movable, — being screwed to a frame 
not fastened to the floor, as shown in this cut. 

The cross partition [a,] — see cut No. 16, is composed of four very 
large doors, about fourteen feet square, hung with weights in such 
a manner that they may be raised into the attic — thus throwing the 
whole upper story into one large hall, — an arrangement by which 
one room can be changed into three, and three into one, as the occa- 
sion may require. On all public occasions, such as Quarterly Exam- 
inations, and Annual Exhibitions, the rooms are thus thrown to- 
gether, and the seats and desks turned so as to face the platform [P,] 
in [E,] the principal Hall. 

Observation and experiment, relative to the modes of warming 
the Public School rooms, have proved that very lai'ge stoves, 
eighteen inches in diameter, render the temperature of the rooms 
more uniform and pleasant, and that they are also more economical, 
both in regard to the amount of fuel consumed, and the amount of 
repairs required. It is a general principle, that a warming appara- 
tus, containing a large quantity of fuel, undergoing a slow combus- 
tion, is better than one containing a small quantity of fuel, in a state 
of rapid combustion. The stoves in the small buildings, and the 
furnaces in the large ones, are constructed on this principle. 

In regard to the construction of furnaces for warming public 
buildings or private dwellings, so much depends upon circumstances, 
that no specific plan can be given, which would be successful in 
all cases. One, familiar with the principles which regulate the mo- 
tions of currents of air at different temperatures, can, with an ordi- 
nary degree of good judgment and mechanical skill, make a fur- 
nace in any place, where one can be made at all, that will accom- 
plish all which the laws of nature will permit. 

The following cut is intended to illustrate two plans for a furnace. 

In the first, the cold air is admitted at [a,] through the outside 
walls of the building, and descends in the direction described by 
the arrows, to [r,] and thence rises to the top of the furnace, as 
shown by the arrows. At this place, the cold air diffuses itself over 



21 



the whole upper surface, about eight feet by ten, and passes down 
between the double walls of the furnace, in the spaces [t, t,] which 
extend all around the furnace ; and rises from beneath, through ? 
large opening [6,] into the air chamber, where it is heated and con* 
ducted to the rooms, by large pipes [/, h.] The object of this 
mode of taking in air is two fold. In the first place, the constant 
currents of cold air, passing over the top of the furnace, keep that 
surface comparatively cool, and also keep the floors above the fur- 
nace cool ; thus removing all danger of setting fire to the wood work 
over the furnace. 

In the second place, as the inside walls are constantly becoming 
heated, and the currents of cold air passing down on all sides of the 
walls, become rarified by their radiation, and thus, as it were, take 
the heat from the outside of the inner walls, and bring it round in- 
to the air chamber again at [b.] This is not mere theory, but has 
been found to work well in practice. On this plan the outside 
walls are kept so cool that very little heat is wasted by radiation. 




In the second plan, the cold air is admitted as before ; but instead 
of ascending from [r,] to the top of the furnace, it passes through 
a large opening directly from [r,] to [p, p, p,] representing small 
piers supporting the inside walls, and thence into the air chamber at 
[b], and also up the spaces [i, t,] to the top [s,] from which the air 
warmed by coming up between the walls, is taken into the rooms 
by separate registers, or is let into the sides of the pipes [/, h.] 



* 28 , , 

By this plan, the air passes more rapidly through the air chamber, 
and enters the rooms in larger quantities, but at a lower tempera- 
ture. This is the better mode, if the furnace be properly construct- 
ed, with large inlets and outlets for air, so that no parts become 
highly heated ; otherwise the wood, work over the furnace will be 
in some danger of taking fire. The general defects in the construction 
of furnaces are — too small openings for the admission of cold air — 
too small pipes for conveying the warm air in all horrizontal and in- 
clined directions — and defective dampers in the perpendicular pipes. 
A frequent cause of failure in warming public buildings and private 
dwellings, may be found in the ignorance and negligence of attend- 
ants. 

A single remark will close this report, which has been extended, 
perhaps, too far, by specific details ; a want of which is often com- 
plained of by mechanics who are engaged in building school houses. 

It is believed to be best, and all things considered, cheapest in the 
end, to build very good school houses, to make their external ap- 
pearance pleasant and attractive, and their internal arrangements 
comfortable and convenient— to keep them in first rate order, well 
repaired, aiid always clean. 

The amount of damage done to school property in this city, has 
uniformly been least, in those houses in which the teachers have 
done most to keep every thing in very good order. The very ap- 
pearance of school property, well taken care of rebukes the spirit 
of mischief, and thus elevates the taste and character of the pupils. 
Respectfully submitted, 

N. BISHOP, 
Superintendent of Public Schools. 

Providence, August, 1846. 



•*..=:^^*^**^It appears from the Report of " The Building Commit- 
tee," that they expended in the purchase of lots and the erection of 
School Houses, $100,060,92. Since all the buildings erected by 
that Committee were completed, there have been seven additional 
buildings for Primary and Intermediate Schools erected, by order of 
the City Council, amounting in all to $15,342,71, making the whole 
amount expended for Public School Houses and Estates, in the City 
of Providence, in seven years, $115,403,63. 



